Kraven the Hunter
The Spider-Man-adjacent “anti-hero” films Sony has made over the past six years have been quite a ride to take in. We’ve had three “Venom” movies, a vampiric scientist movie best known for a golden Matt Smith meme (“Morbius”), and a woodenly-acted meme factory earlier this year (“Madame Web”). Allegedly, “Kraven the Hunter” will be the final one we get, which- for fans of quality cinema- might be a blessing, but for fans of pure superhero cheese, marks the end of an era. I will miss it, but I’m fine with it ending; we got some crazy, chaotic fun times out these films.
After an opening scene in a Russian prison where Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) assassinates a crime boss, we get an extended flashback that feels about as long as the opening sequence in “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” even though there’s not nearly as much exposition to go through. Basically, Kraven is Sergei, one of two sons of a crime boss (played with full-on accent ham by Russell Crowe). Sixteen years prior to the opening, the father and sons go on a hunting trip, and Sergei is almost killed by a lion. Some of the lion’s blood ends up in him, and a young girl finds him and pours some healing potion in him. He gains agility and strength which, in adulthood- far away from his father- he begins to hunt and kill those who bring evil into the world. I guess that’s noble, but once his brother (Dmitri, played by Fred Hechinger) gets sucked into the middle of things, it’s personal, and the stakes are higher.
It’s been interesting, in these films, to see how they dance around the existence of Spider-Man without including him; some don’t mention him, some really lean into it in absurd ways, and others use the likeness even when it’s hard to imagine why. “Kraven” goes with option 1, but we get allusions of weird scientific happenings in New York that lead to a couple of Spidey’s rogues gallery showing up here (including the film’s main villain, Rhino, played by Alessandro Nivola in a particularly embarrassing performance). The young girl who finds Sergei as a teen is Calypso, who grows up to be played by Ariana DeBose, and is another Spidey adversary. The cast of characters in this film- which includes Foreigner, a mercenary played by Christopher Abbott- is arguably more interesting than Kraven himself, who- in Taylor-Johnson’s performance- doesn’t really have much personality to carry the film (a trait he shares in common with Leto’s Morbius). The film, directed by J.C. Chandor, is fairly flat to watch, but it’s got some fair action, and honestly, Crowe’s work goes a long way in the cheese department. It’s not as weirdly atonal as “Madame Web” or as gonzo hilarious as the “Venom” films; unfortunately, it kind of sits there, hoping we’ll just go with it while it makes some choices in terms of visual storytelling and narrative that don’t provide much interest, but also don’t bore us like “Morbius.” “Kraven the Hunter” isn’t a good movie, but it’s not awful either. It just exists.
